I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to wireless communications. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a novel and improved methods and apparatuses for the wireless metering of remote measurement devices using ad-hoc networks.
II. Description of the Related Art
Many industries utilize remote metering devices to monitor, measure, or record critical data. For example, utility companies use utility meters located at the customer site to measure utility consumption. The de-regulation of utility companies, such as electric power, water, and natural gas companies, has prompted these utility companies to seek technological modernization of equipment and services as a means of reducing costs in order to compete with other potential utility service providers.
In a conventional utility metering system, each utility customer is billed according to utility usage over a predetermined period of time, such as one or two months. An electro-mechanical meter having a visual display such as a set of dials, or an “odometer” type display measures the utility usage. A person, typically an employee of the utility company, periodically visits each utility meter in a service area to visually read the utility consumption as reported by the meter.
Several inefficiencies exist in conventional utility metering system. For example, the utility company must pay a person to travel to each meter to visually read it. This may require sending the meter reader into a dangerous area. It also takes a long time for a person to physically visit each meter. Additionally, most electro-mechanical meters may be opened and tampered with by a person wishing to reduce his utility bill. Since the meter is typically read only about once a month, the tampering may not be evident to the utility company. Another drawback to the conventional utility metering system is that local fault detection, such as the detection of a localized blackout or brownout condition, is not possible because the remote device is not measured or reported on a regular basis.
The problems facing the utility companies in this area are similar to problems facing companies in other industries that have a need to remotely monitor, measure or control a metering device or point-of-sale. For example, mail delivery companies, such as the U.S. Postal Service or the like, generally maintain a large number of mail drop-off points. Each day, these drop-off points must be checked to see if any mail has been deposited for delivery. Often times, especially in rural areas, there is no mail at the remote mailbox when the postal employee arrives to check it. The result is inefficient deployment of resources. Likewise, vending machine service providers send employees out to service remote vending machines according to a predetermined schedule, without knowing what the actual demand has been at the machine until the employee arrives. Clearly, there are many industries that face similar inefficiencies that arise from scheduled servicing of remote stations rather than event-driven demand-side management of these remote stations.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,748,104, issued May 5, 1998, entitled, “Wireless Remote Telemetry System,” assigned to the assignee of the present invention, and incorporated herein by reference, discloses a remote telemetry method and system. However, the wireless portion of the infrastructure needs high power remote unit and elaborate network planning.
There is, therefore, a need for a remote telemetry system that avoids the disadvantages of the prior art telemetry systems by providing wireless telemetry data information in a low-cost and efficient manner. There is also a need for a “gateway” for providing advanced consumer services at the remote location.